Long Road Ahead
by Destroyer of Peace
Summary: Welcome to the vast deserts of Arizona, where the blood in the threat of the Legion looms over Marcus and his family. Watch as he struggles to keep them and others he holds dear to him alive in this cruel land.
1. Chapter 1

The darkness began to part as a thin blue pale light of the morning sunrise washed into the room it occupied unveiling a dresser worn and weathered from hundreds of years of misuse. The room continued to brighten overtime as the harsh sun began to raise once more over the horizon and bled in through the window, this time it creeped up a queen sized bed to a couple sleeping under some wool blankets. Almost on cue the man opened his bloodshot tired eyes as he didn't sleep well again. He felt his wife's warm naked body under his arm and he smiled closing his eyes wanting to stay like this forever but there is work to do, even though he disliked it. He slid himself away from her hating every second of the action but he also hated that damned blanket almost the same.

He stood up and rolled his shoulders with a groan before walking over to the mirror next to the dresser and grabbed his pants off of the side of it, slid on the old pair of jeans and picked up a white t-shirt that was stain from its many years of use and tucked it in before fastening his belt. The man looked at the mirror to his unshaven black hairs on his face thinking today while he went to town that he would get a shave and his hair cut as his shaggy hair was getting to be too much once more. His brown eyes trailed his battle hardened and toned face and body noticing his scar from his right cheek to his jawline has finally turned to a whitish hue.

The man peeled his eyes away from the mirror and went for the door collecting a brown leather coat with a fur neck from the closed door before he went into the living room. The aged wood was holding up pretty well for it's age, whomever built this house knew what they were doing as just now some of the dry wall was crumbling, the ceiling was starting to peel, and the paint on all the doors finally faded to a dull grey. The man made his way to the kitchen that was in the middle of being replaced for the first time in two hundred years and he started to boil water for coffee.

Today's list of boring every day life was to check the fences, every Sunday and Wednesday was fence day, check it, fortify it, and continue on. Then he had to go through his fields, tend to the crops, then by ten it would be his hike a five day round trip into town to take care of trading from his hull from yesterday's scavenging run through Lake Havasu City to The Quartz which is south east from his quaint little valley. After that it is to come home and finish tearing down the wall in between the kitchen and the useless bathroom. His pot was boiling and he made his coffee in a flash, grabbed a some dried banana yucca and went outside to enjoy the rest of the sun rise eating his fruit.

The man turned his head to a man walking up to him wearing a similar piece of attire only instead of a leather coat it was a red button up and a straw hat, "Howdy Esteban."

Esteban huffed as his boots crunched up the gravel path to the home and he parted his lips in a smile but the man couldn't see the man's teeth due to being the only evidence of him smiling was his cheeks curled as the man's thick mutton chops covered his upper and lower lip in a black shroud, "Marcus my friend. Good morning, how was your rest?"

"Great to be honest," Marcus spoke with a deep gravelly voice that would have been in the old holos of westerns he saw back in California. He reached inside his house and placed his empty coffee mug on the stand just inside the doorway before grabbing his belt with two pouches, his Bowie knife, and his .357 revolver snugly wrapped in it's holster. He slipped on his belt and reached back inside for three more articles that he needed before he could comfortably walk outside his own him. First was a harness that had a holster that would go on the square of his back made of a nice thick leather, his favorite .45-70 lever action rifle that he has had forever now. He inspected the weathered weapon seeing she was couple hundred years old but Jolene was still one hell of a bitch capable of striking targets farther than his damn scope that he once had on her could reach.

He slipped the rifle into his holster and he missed the nine pound weight on his shoulders once more. His final thing was his most favorite piece of attire, his leather Stetson hat that he always wore. Once he stepped off the porch he heard the porch door close and looked at his friend while putting on his hat, "Julio?"

"Bah I let him sleep in today," Esteban chuckled and walked over to Marcus. His eyes couldn't help but look at the missing index finger on Esteban's left hand that he lost twelve years back from a Legionnaire's round that bounced off the Receiver of Esteban's .308 hunting rifle. Marcus always considers him lucky that he was naturally a left handed man or The fifty four year old man wouldn't be here in this small farming community east of the Colorado River. "Where is your son Evan?"

"He is nineteen," Marcus looked at the house as he saw a figure grabbing a coat and a rifle to join them. Evan was his first born of three children, and thankfully he was smarter than Marcus in the way of life. Marcus was born in Shady Sands and he joined the military when he was sixteen because he got his wife Pregnant with Evan and he needed to have a source of income other than her Followers of the Apocalypse charity work and even then it wasn't much. "He can make his choices."

Evan swung the door open tucking on a grey ball cap and tossing his .308 rifle across his shoulder. He was shorter that Marcus, didn't have his features except for his black hair, instead he held his mother's jade eyes, oval face, and lean frame. Evan finished tucking in his cotton blue and green plaid button up before readjusting his worn denim coat, "Morning Esteban!"

"Buenos días hombrecito," Esteban spread his arms wide and wrapped them around Marcus' son. "Glad you didn't sleep in."

"Had to leave a note for mom," Evan patted Esteban's back. "I haven't seen Quartz before so I am rather excited for the trip."

Marcus waited for them to chat some as he looked out to the sun then around the small farming community of twenty some houses before him. He came here once before about ten years ago when he was tasked to scout the Colorado river and he found it peaceful, only nine of the houses were occupied and he found Esteban to be a rather kind man, so he chose this place to live out his life after retirement. Now fourteen houses are occupied and it is a very self sufficient farming community a few days walk from the relatively untouched after the Great War, Lake Havasu City.

Lake Havasu was missed from the bombs as some poor SOB must have been a stupid idiot when they dropped the bomb, they missed most of the city by striking the 95 south of the city, what killed the residents there was the extreme radiation storms that plagued the world after the Great War making the city a massive graveyard, Ghoul city, or a scavengers wet dream. He turned back to the community to see another member of the group heading back to the town. He must have eaten whole Brahmin a day to feed himself as a child as he was enormous, a staggering seven foot tall giant covered in every square centimeter of muscle and scars lined his broad jawline and gorilla like arms. His nearly pitch black skin scared the hell out of Marcus one to many times as Cliff rarely if every speaks unless there is a clear danger. Marcus always wondered how he got the name Cliff, but everyone in town knows he was a Great Khan.

The Great Khans, Marcus had to engage them on countless occasions and he respects Cliff as Marcus knows of their barbaric rituals and right of passage. Marcus is also glad that someone like Cliff is always willing to go on the scavenging runs and perimeter checks, meaning someone with combat experience.

Marcus tipped his hat to Cliff and placed one thumb of his into his belt, "Morning Cliff."

"Morning," Cliff said and Marcus could tell the man was trying to be friendly. "Ready?"

"We will be meeting up with Henry by the main gate like normal then teams of me and Marcus," Esteban spoke as he walked up to the approaching man. "And you Henry, and Evan. After that we get to work."

The walk to the main gate was silent as Marcus kept his eyes out past the fences in wide arc like sweeps. As they got to where Henry and his wife Eva were Marcus had this uncomfortable itch in the back of his head that he was being watched. Henry was a very small and not very intimidating man with big black framed glasses and a nervous twitch to him. He is minorly weird, always straightening up the smallest of details, labels everything, and has a strict level of scheduling that he rarely breaks. But what Henry has is a brilliant mind behind under all of that quirk. He has programmed a sentry not to take over watch at night freeing up a night guard. He has also fixed terminals and hacked into terminals on many occasions, but even better, he wants to head out into Havasu on every occasion so he could get any scrap he can get his hands on to work on something.

Eva is the opposite of his bonkers way of life. She is laid back, when working she is walking around in a jumpsuit with it open to her naval exposing a white tank top. She is covered in dirt and grease from her work. Half the time he swears the mechanic Eva will drive Henry to insanity but they are like two pieces of a puzzle that match perfectly. Just recently they fixed up solar panels and batteries to store power. They are geniuses and Marcus is glad two people can be like this still. Henry turned to them with a smile, "Hey guys. We ready?"

"Yeah," Marcus looked at Eva's dark brown hair. "We will come to you when we are done so you can-."

"Yeah I know boss man," She out on her own black framed glasses. "So I can patch em up. You all enjoy yourselves."

And with that the five split into two and went to their Jobs. Marcus looked around feeling the itch become a full on scream, this time, he knew something was watching him but he couldn't find it. And that bothered him.

* * *

Hey all, this chapter is kind of dry (Get it? Because they are in a desert.) and that was to introduce the main character and co. I love the Fallout universe and I will gladly continue this series as it will have a Western appeal to it as the location is quite a western place. Expect to learn more about some of the characters introduced here in this chapter, along with a few others that have yet to make their appearance. I don't own anything in the Fallout franchise but these characters are original.

once again pals, enjoy.


	2. Chapter 2

"Hey Amigo," Esteban said as he looked to a small gap in the fence where a coyote must have chewed his way through the wire mesh and slipped between the boards and sheet metal. Marcus pushed off the dirt with the butt of his rifle and to his friend's eyes. "Qué tienes en mente?"

"Dunno Esteban," Marcus said as he began to stand up brushing some of the dirt off of himself. "Just seems so quiet now that Caeser is dead and the NCR have control of the dam, I just have a feeling that the Legion isn't done."

"We know they aren't," Esteban spoke as if he knew what Marcus was thinking of the entire time but Marcus didn't dare try to ask any questions. "The Legion fits to their Icono, the Bull. They are arrogant, foolish, and the easiest to predict. Caesar dies and some Legate takes the position, when they die another one steps up, its predictable."

"Your right on that," Marcus began to move forwards once more. "Thousands of men fight for the Legion and the NCR and right now the money is on the NCR but a year ago I would have put it on the Legion, partly because our supply chains were and still are spread out to the point that almost all of them are unprotected, they get stalled at trading posts, and because we have taken so much territory we can't seem to control all of that territory."

"You are using we and ours again," Esteban said as he caught up to Marcus and he felt his ears get a little red. "Is this because you want to go back?"

"What," Marcus looks at Esteban.

"I have been watching you hombre," Esteban sneered with a fatherly feeling coming off of him. "You sit there late at night in your shed cleaning your service rifle, your old black armor. When we are out on patrols, and scavenging runs you look around as if we are all soldiers. You miss being a Ranger."

Marcus stopped and he looked to the ground knowing what Esteban said was true. He missed it, yes he nearly had his head taken off a few times, he had to stitch his leg up in the middle of a firefight, carried a lot of men back to field hospitals because they couldn't walk themselves. But what he missed the most was the men and women he served with. Now here he is, a thirty five year old man with a wife and four children living in a decent community.

"One thing I never understand," Esteban continued placing his hands on his belt and tucking his thumbs behind it. "Why leave when you could have easily put in another ten years, and why leave NCR territory."

Marcus narrowed his eyes to the man he calls friend and Esteban must have taken notice as his hand moved slowly to his gun. Esteban is one hell of a character reader and his suspicions normally help the group out on runs avoid danger, "Marcus."

Marcus looked at his friend then turned going back to securing the fence. He heard the hammer of Esteban's .44 and Marcus instantly out of trained instinct ducked forwards and pivoted himself while dropping to one knee bringing up his brush action rifle. The .44 barked with a loud roar and Marcus heard the bullet fly past him, followed by three more shots. Marcus brought his rifle to bare and aimed it Esteban's chest, "The fuck do you think you are doing Cabrón!"

Marcus finally realized what was going on. Esteban had his revolver pointed to the fence indicating he wasn't after Marcus, and he only said Marcus's name to warn him. Marcus quickly pivoted left aiming in the general direction to see two Radscorpions charging full speed at them while a third was writhing around behind them on it's back.

Marcus put his forehand onto his knee to steady his aim and he squeezed the trigger to his rifle letting the .45-70 round soar. The round met it's mark while his shooting hand thruster forwards ejecting the round from the rifle and pulled it back into place feeding a fresh round into the chamber. The closest Radscorpion screeched in agony as the round tore into it's carapace and into the mutated arachnid's body making it stagger. Marcus repeated this three more times before standing up slightly into a crouch and back pedaled quickly. Esteban fired his last two rounds into the same Radscorpion but the creature the size of three dogs still came.

The Radscorpion thruster it's right claw at Marcus' foot trying to grab him or take off his leg. Marcus lifted up his leg and went to take another step back but he fell into the canal with ankle deep water in it. When he splashed down the butt of his rifle clattered on the dirt and rolled out of his grip. He knew better than to reach for it as it would leave an opening and he had a giant arachnid to deal with before hand. He grasped his .357 on his belt and drew it as fast as possible along with his Bowie knife. The other Radscorpion was thankfully chasing after Esteban but that still left the seriously pissed off Radscorpion to Marcus. The beast approached him and launched it's tail at him giving him time to lift his torso and avoid the stinger as it harmlessly struck the canal's bed then retracted. The arachnid tried twice more before Marcus turned his torso to get a decent swing in on the tail. He aimed for the barb and surely his knife met it's mark in between the plates to the scorpion making it squeal in anguish. He roughly pulled the blade back and the serrated side did it's magic completely severing a good chunk of the tail. He saw the bug wench it's tail back still screaming and Marcus saw the barb was loosely flopping around no longer fully attached but as a hunk of meat barely on. That was taken care of but his next danger was the Scorpion trailing about. Quickly Marcus brought his revolver up and fired two shots into the Radscorpion, only one penetrated the beast in one of it's many eyes making it scream one more.

Marcus got on his feet once more and he looked at the Radscorpion with fire in his eyes and hope that Esteban had the other one distracted and the third was still rolling about or dead. He had to make a quick decision, run or fight. Marcus chose to fight and he ran towards the Radscorpion so it wouldn't have time to think and he side stepped around the beast bringing his revolver to it's right claw only to have it sweep at his stomach knocking him onto the ground a few feet away and blowing all the wind he had into his lungs. He still managed to keep a grip onto his weapons and he brought the revolver up. Marcus squeezed off two round again into one of the legs and the Radscorpion screeched but in a blur it was reaching one of it's claws to his head. Marcus instinctively rolled out of the way but the sharp claw still raked across his thigh and tore his jeans and flesh like it was a nice mutton to fillet. Marcus hissed in anger and he jammed his revolver into the beast's eye before pulling the trigger twice more finally killing it but the corpse fell a top of him.

Marcus flopped down breathing heavily as the weight of the arachnid bared down on him and pinned his waist and legs down. He looked right and saw the Radscorpion that was chasing Esteban charging at him at full speed! Hurriedly Marcus shook the empty shells from his revolver and slipped fresh rounds into her. He drew the hammer back and fired off three rounds only to watch them bounce off of the beast. He fired until he was out of ammo watching the arachnid come closer rearing it's tail up. Marcus chose to look the creature in the eyes as a final act of defiance while he waited for the barb to impale him.

The Radscorpion began to thrust forwards with it's tail and Marcus waited for it but for some miracle he heard a deep robotic voice, "Target Acquired!"

Marcus watched a dark army green object ram the arachnid with it's arms sliding underneath the bug then it flipped the Radscorpion into the fence breaking some wooden supports and began to knock down the makeshift barrier due to the weight of the Radscorpion and the force it was thrown at. Marcus looked at the robot before him slack jawed in disbelief. It was the raw unarmored form of Eva's pet project named Virgil. The legs were that of a salvaged Security bot, the arms were the same but severely altered so it would have two three fingered hands, a rack that looked like a few bits of armament could go there. The left arm had a circular blade inside the arm that looked like it would swing downward and up so it would be before the hand and used as a slashing weapon. The right arm had a retractable blade from the looks of it. The torso was rather plain and of her own design to hold an fusion core and other things he couldn't recognize, but the real eye catcher was the Assultron head, "Are you al-l-l- ight mister?"

Marcus blinked as he looked to the war machine in confusion, "Yes?"

"Pologies sir," The robot spoke with a garbled mess of different accents and hiccups in it's voice as it's head began to glow red as the assulton's head laser. "Miss Eva has y-y-y plete me," the circular saw came out and began to spin as the retractible blade also jumped forwards. The Radscorpion was on it's feet and it snapped it's claws then began for Virgil. "En garde!"

The Radscorpion was the size of a big horn but Virgil had maneuverability and he rotated past the claws and with his right side blade cut off the barb of the tail, retracted the blade and with the same hand grabbed onto the tail. The circular saw swept low and took out two legs tearing them apart from the main body and the Radscorpion screamed in anger and tried to turn but the one leg couldn't maintain the strain. Once again the circular saw stuck the enemy at the tail as if Virgil was testing the armor of the bug then started to cut a square into the back of the arachnid. Virgil grabbed hold of the loose carapace life and tore it off before aiming it's head to the square. A red beam erupted from the head and went into the square burning a hole straight through the bug and into the dirt until the bug stopped moving. Virgil then vented it's built up energy before saying comedically, "Barbecue anyone?"

Marcus chuckled and shook his head as the machine rolled over to him. It lifted the corpse off of Marcus and when Marcus was free of the corpse and laid his body back eyes locked onto his thigh being cut open. No bone was showing and the artery was missed but the wound was still bleeding a lot. He reached out and grabbed each side of the four inch slash and put pressure on his wound, "Re-you ok mister?"

"Probably but that is a lot of blood," Marcus said feeling a little woozy. "Don't suppose you have first aid knowledge."

"Negative," Virgil leaned forwards radiating heat from it's head. "Will you die?"

"Dunno," Marcus looked around and he saw Esteban was in a tree climbing down, and six figures were on their way over. He looked to the fence and saw Cliff and his son sprinting with Henry in tow. He blinked heavily as he heard footsteps pounding up to him and faded voices as they put pressure on his Megan's called his name. Marcus groaned as his eyes fluttered shut and beneath him the ground gave way and he felt he was flying.

* * *

Chapter two, whoot! Thanks for reading this guys and I really hope you enjoyed the story so far. I always thought the Radscorpion was one of the most brutal and underrated, almost on the level of mudcrabs from the Elder Scrolls series. Don't be afraid to message me or leave a review for me, I would appreciate it. Chapter three will be up soon as well and it will feature one of my favorite characters I have made. Once again thank you for reading and have a good day!


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